title: Association between psoriasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a population-based study in Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psoriasis is regarded as a systemic inflammatory disease, having been linked in recent studies, to a wide range of systemic disorders. Previous studies have reported a positive correlation between psoriasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, no studies have been conducted on an ethnic Chinese population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a population-based study, using a representative cohort from the National Health Insurance database in Taiwan, between 2004 and 2006. The risk of COPD was compared between patients with psoriasis and a matched reference cohort. This study included 2096 psoriasis patients and 8384 randomly selected controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and selected chronic diseases, the hazard ratio (HR) for COPD in psoriasis patients was 2.35 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.42-3.89) compared with the control group in 18 months of follow-4 up. Men (HR = 2.38, 95% CI: 1.36-4.18) and patients with psoriasis over 50 years of age (HR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.27-3.77) were more likely to contract COPD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that psoriasis patients were at a greater risk of developing COPD with significantly lower COPD-free survival rates than the comparison cohort (P < 0.001). Physicians should be aware of this potential risk to reduce comorbidity and mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y-Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: H-W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011565:Psoriasis / Q000150:complications*; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000150:complications*; D013624:Taiwan